Scattered Petals
by xxskyWriterxx
Summary: What's the worst possible thing that could show up on your doorstep? No, not anything like a doomsday bomb or an enraged zombie; I've dealt with those before. Easy. But NOTHING could have prepared me for THIS lovely surprise... Oneshot-Mandy's POV


Scattered Petals

-A Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy Fanfiction-

The air felt like a bad case of lovesickness; hot and heavy and sticky, pressing against my skin like suffocating walls, closing in on me. I was already bored with despising it, as the sweltering summer's day had already crawled along to early afternoon, and my hatred had ignited since the moment I awoke to a clear, bright morning. The heat was so thick that I could see it rippling as I stared out my bedroom window, the blinding sun scorching the cloudless blue sky. The simmering heat waves rolled over the street, distorting my view of the plain houses of the dull Endsville suburb, in which I was so unfortunate to reside.

Rolling onto my side, the bedsheets rustling, I let out a shallow sigh, my ghostly pale skin sticky and flushed. The cloth of my thigh length, pink dress stuck to my perspiring flesh; my forehead burned under my jagged bangs of white blonde hair, dank and sticky with the heat. My bare feet were curled under me as I lay like a lump on my bed, which I had been doing all day long; it had seemed like a nightmarish eternity. I absentmindedly scratched my damp forehead, my thick, dark eyebrows furrowing as I fixed my eternal black eyes on the matte walls of my bedroom, which my stupid mother had of course chosen to paint a dank, pale rose color. Painted in orderly spaced little clusters all over the walls were single, skinny, four pointed stars of a dark pink hue, looking almost like ninja throwing stars. Having a couple of those on hand could've made my day a lot more productive. But of course, I had none, nor could I order Grim for some; he was over making a fool of himself at Billy's house, as usual. But at least he had a functioning air conditioning unit to keep him from being roasted alive, unlike me. My stupid mother was incompetent in everything, including fixing the blown out air conditioning, ensuring that the temperature of my house remained hovering about equal to the temperature of hell.

A gnat buzzed annoyingly in my face; without changing my stony expression or even averting my hard gaze from the wall, my left arm swung up from my side and I mercilessly crushed it between my thumb and my pointer finger. The loud buzzing was silenced instantly. After rubbing my two fingers slowly together, smashing the stupid bug's body, I flicked its remains away, letting out a snarl and propping my chin up off of my bed with my right hand, lifting my gaze slightly. Where was Grim when I needed him? Out being an imbecile with Billy. Of course. He was probably dancing around with his huge cheese hat on his head as I lay sweltering in my room; my sweaty fists clenched at that thought, my bottom lip curling as a fresh wave of red hot rage ripped through me. He would pay for this injustice…

The loud rapping of someone knocking frantically at the front door broke my train of thought, and I lifted my gaze slightly, one black eyebrow raised in an expression of mixed suspicion and disbelief. Maybe it was that horrid mailman who always delivered my mother's pointless girly magazines that she seemed to receive every other day. Every time that stupid man saw me, he always made a huge blubbering fuss, as if I were a little pink poodle and he was a little pink toddler girl. Well, he already acted plenty like one, cooing and giggling whenever he caught a glimpse of me. Yesterday, he'd pinched my cheek and I'd given him one of my best punches; he'd smashed clear through our front gate and landed hard in the middle of the street, where he was nearly mowed down by a roaring Suburban that had to serve wildly to avoid crushing his huge butt. Pity it had missed. I'd thought I'd finally got my message through his thick, empty head, but it was possible that I was wrong.

I shifted on my bed, waiting for my mother to answer the door. But after nearly two minutes of incessant knocking, it was clear that the woman was distracted. Probably by her beloved soap operas or something. Growling slightly, I slid down off of the bed, my bare feet thumping down on the carpeted floor. Scowling even harder than usual, I stalked sluggishly through the roasting house for the front door, my arms rigid at my sides and my fists clenched, a bead of sweat crawling down my forehead. If it was the accursed mailman again, this time he would get no mercy from me. My feet thudding softly on the floor, I approached the door, my teeth clenched, ready for the incoming storm. But nothing could have prepared me for what sat outside.

I gripped the doorknob and swung the door open, my expression fiery. A blast of sweltering air greeted me, burning like hellfire against my pink flushed skin. Seething, I pinched the skin between my eyebrows in an extremely irritated way, my eyes squeezed shut against the blinding light of the summer afternoon sun. Then I opened them and spoke in a low, menacing voice, my hand falling from my face and gesturing in a very demanding way.

"Ok…. what do _you_ wa-?""

My voice was extinguished midsentence, my jaw dropping wide open, my horrorstruck eyes expanding like blank galaxies to fill my entire flushed face. My arms dropped limply by my sides and I was vaguely aware of my heart, suddenly skipping a beat with the sheer terror that seized my chest in its crushing iron grip. I had forgotten how to breathe. Sitting there on my doormat, slightly wilted from the heat, was a large yellow daisy in a clear, faceted crystal vase, glittering in the sunlight like a freshly polished crystal. Attached to the daisy's long green stem by a frayed pink ribbon was a tag, the words scribbled on in messy, frantic letters that struck me as strikingly familiar. The tag read:

To: Mandy

From: Billy

I couldn't comprehend it. I just stood there in the doorway, frozen in terror, my arms hanging by my sides like a gorilla's , my eyes as wide as the sky, my previously flushed face completely drained of all color, like an old piece of notebook paper. The sun was burning on my bare feet, on my damp face, but I was barely aware of it. All I was mentally capable of doing was standing there, staring, my body and mind completely paralyzed, staring like a horrorstruck child. The balance of the universe had certain been destroyed; this couldn't be happening. My white fingers trembled on the doorknob and my mouth opened and closed slightly and silently, words unable to form.

"Who's at the door, honey?"

My mom's, stupid, shaky, falsely sentimental voice suddenly broke my mental paralysis, and my breath came back in sharp gasps, my heart restarting. I heard her approaching footsteps and my mind whirled frantically, desperately, for some of kind of last second plan. There was no way I could let her see this. In a stroke of sheer desperation, I seized an old, withered newspaper off of the doormat and heaved it with all my might; it sailed across the house and landed with an earsplitting crash somewhere in the kitchen. My mother let out a scream of terror and I heard her frantic footsteps clacking as she made a mad dash for the scene of the accident, probably fearing the worst for her precious new, ornate pink glass vase. I took the golden opportunity, seizing the daisy's vase in my trembling hands and slamming the front door shut, sprinting back up to my room like a fleeing shoplifter, my eyes still wide with horror and my feet pounding frantically. My breath coming sharp and ragged, I flung open my bedroom door and burst through, slamming it behind me and swiftly shutting all of the curtains, the vase still clutched tightly in my hand, which was shaking as if the daisy was tactic nuclear device. I yanked the last curtain shut and the room was plunged into darkness, except for a faint, golden glow that was streaming in from the gaps in the curtain fabric. I sat down on my bed, staring silently at the vase in my hands, still unable to make sense of it. I sat there for what seemed like a week, as rigid as a marble statue, my eyes fixed on that bright yellow daisy, shining at me from its glittering crystal vase. I'd read the tag over so many times that my brain couldn't make sense of the words anymore; they just became an incomprehensible, tangled jumble of letters.

To: Mandy

From: Billy

I must be dreaming. The blistering heat had gotten to my head. I was hallucinating. I had somehow been transported to an alternate dimension. There had to be some reason, some explanation….It was just not possible that Billy had…sent me a flower. My mind reeled at this thought, the vase nearly slipping from my slackened grip. But I grabbed hold of it at the last moment, regaining my tight hold; I just couldn't break it…..Why couldn't I break it? It was like trying to smile; as hard as I tried, as hard as I concentrated every particle of my mind, I could not do it. My fingers just wouldn't move. And **that** horrified me even further, fear seizing me in its icy grip, tearing deep down into my flesh. A sudden rap on my bedroom door nearly sent me flying out of my skin in terror.

"Honey…..Did you…have you heard…oh, my vase…"

"DON'T COME IN!"

The raspy, high pitched shriek cracked through the air like a whip, and it took my brain a few seconds to realize that it had come from my own mouth. My eyes widening even further, I clutched the crystal vase to my chest in horror, shrinking away from the door like a vampire from light. Breathing deeply, palms sweaty, I struggled to regain my sanity, readjusting my panicked voice to its normal sullen drone.

"Stay…Stay **out** of my room….._mother_."

I almost hissed out that last word, and sure enough, I heard the pounding of her footsteps as she ran as fast as she could in the opposite direction, away from my bedroom door.

I remained sitting on my bed, struggling to keep my breathing deep and relaxed, trying not to hyperventilate. But as soon as my wide gaze fell back upon the daisy in my hands, the panic washed back over me like the tide. Sweat broke out on my forehead and my mouth dropped open in terror. It just couldn't be…

And then I snapped. I didn't even realize it; it was as if a fiery spirit of the underworld had suddenly grabbed hold of my body. The next thing I knew, I was charging around the room in a frenzied rage, growling and screaming like a wild boar, destroying everything I could get my hands on. My alarm clock shattered into pieces after a fatal blow, the carpet tore under my bare feet, the curtains were shredded into fluttering tatters, my fists went flying through my window, and mutilated pages floated through the steaming air as I clawed ferociously at one of my stupid books. The only thing that remained untouched by my blazing fury was the daisy, sitting there on my pink bedsheets, twinkling in its crystal vase.

"Hiiiiii, Mandy!"

Billy's horribly familiar, stupid voice hit me like a ton of bricks; I let out a ragged gasp and my eyes nearly popped out of my skull. Dropping the shredded paper remains from my balled up fists, I whirled around in sheer terror, my eyes as wide as the cosmos and my skin as white as death itself. Standing there in front of my shattered window was Billy, dressed in his usual red baseball cap, navy pants and blue striped T-shirt, a wide, moronic smile shining on his slightly pink face. His tongue lolling out of his mouth, he gazed happily around the room, not at all noticing its current state of tattered destruction.

"Uhhhhhh…." His smile faded into a slightly confused expression, tapping his forehead with his grubby finger. "Do ya have any…. toast?"

I couldn't do anything but stand there, frozen, staring at him in shock. Billy raised his eyebrows and put his hands on his hips, his eyes scanning me with suspicion. He slowly walked up to me, narrowing his eyes with every deliberate step he took. Not even a foot from where I stood, Billy stopped, not taking his eyes off of me.

"Mandy, did you's eat my cat again? 'Cause I know's when you…."

My white fingers shot out, seized the front of Billy's T-shirt and yanked him towards me, fury igniting in my eyes, my stunned expression contorting into one of sheer rage, my lip curling, my face reddening, and my eyes narrowing into piercing slits.

"_Explain yourself, you __**pathetic**__ waste of DNA_." I growled, steaming like hell itself, my knuckled whitening on his shirt collar as I pulled him closer to me, his enormous nose pressing up against my burning forehead. Billy blinked, his face blank.

"Explain what?"

I ground my teeth together, balling my free hand into a threatening fist and holding it up in Billy's face.

"_You know what; don't play dumb with me, you brainless sack of…_"

Still unfazed, Billy's roving eyes caught sight of something and he suddenly let out a bloodcurdling shriek that tore the very air; my eardrums rattled and throbbed at the merciless noise.

"NONONONONONONONO!" Billy squealed, wrenching himself out of my slackened grip, my insides still rattling from the volume of his scream. "! WE'RE !"

Stunned, my eyes wide like moons, I stood there with my arms hanging helplessly at my sides, watching Billy scamper around me in frantic circles, screaming and wailing like a crazed banshee.

"Billy," I breathed. "…what the heck are you…?"

"THE FLOWER!" Billy shrieked, desperately snatching at the front of my dress and yanking it up to his tearstained, blotchy face. " It'll….DESTROY US ALL!"

My hand lashed out across his cheek, delivering him a ferocious slap before he could start _that_ stupid thing up again; he released his grip on my dress, tumbling head over heels onto the floor.

"Get a hold of yourself, you blithering idiot." I growled, cracking my knuckles, the cool feeling of relief spreading through me. "It's just a stupid daisy; it can't do anythi-"

"NononononononoNO!" Billy jabbered angrily, pulling himself to his feet and nearly poking my eye out with his dirty pointing finger. "That…" he pointed at the flower with hatred. "…is **not** no stupid daisy. It's…._pure __**EVIL**_….."

He hissed out those last two words as menacingly as he could, narrowing his eyes and clenching his fists tightly.

I buried my face in my palm, sighing, but my insides unknotting themselves. So it was for some normal stupid reason that Billy had given me the flower; it wasn't anything….else.

"Please; you've gotta believe me, Mandy!" Billy whined, clutching the fabric of my dress again, pulling me close to him. "That stupid daisy's out to **kill** me! Grim gave it to me 'cause I told him to get me a flower but I didn't know it would be a trick flower from stupid Nigel Planter's stupid store and it would try to kill me and… hey; whatdidyadotoyourfiiiingers?"

His tone of voice changed abruptly into mindless banter as that last sentence rolled like water off of his tongue. Stunned, I held my hands up in front of my face; the paper white flesh was ripped open, warm, hot blood trickling down my arms and dripping onto the carpet in bright red droplets. I knew I shouldn't have punched that window.

Growling, I used my elbows to shove Billy off of me and then I stalked across the room to my dresser, cursing under my breath as my ravaged hands stung with biting pain. Cringing, I dug through the drawers and extracted a box of bandages, antiseptic, and some cotton balls; in Endsville, you always have to be prepared, unless of course you want to die. Unfortunately, this rule didn't seem to apply to Billy and the idiotic life forms he referred to as his parents.

I gingerly opened the box and shook a few bandages out, hissing with pain as the cardboard edge caught on a particularly nasty gash across my left palm. My eyes screwed up with the pain, I fumbled with the long, cloth strips; Billy padded up to my side, staring at me, which was quite unlike him.

"What do you want_, stooge_?" I growled, shooting him an icy glare that was quickly cut off by the involuntary widening of my eyes; I had caught one of my injuries again, this time with a flying bandage. I gritted my teeth, hissing again and throwing the bandage down in frustration. "_Stupid, rotten, piece of…._"

My rant was cut off by a sudden pressure on my right hand, firm, but gentle. I turned in surprise, my eyes like galaxies. Billy had caught hold of my hand, the hot scarlet blood oozing between his fingers, which were curled carefully around mine; his strange expression was impossible to read. I tried to suppress the scream of rage, but it burst forth like a torrent of water from a busted dam and shattered the hot, stagnant air like glass. A hellish flame ignited in my piercing eyes, black as death; scorching waves of wrath rippling from my skin like the seismic waves of an earthquake.

"There we go; all done!" Billy's unfazed, stupidly triumphant voice extinguished my blistering fury like a bucket of ice water; the room went deadly silent, the air so heavy and still that it seemed nearly solid. Billy was kneeling on the carpet in front of me, his glowing smile stretched from one cheek to the other, the box of bandages clutched in his hands. I blankly stared down at my own torn hands, stretching out my fingers in front of my face; they were completely wrapped in bandages, all of the cuts concealed. Billy had bandaged me himself. With eyes are wide as the sky, I stared dumbly at him, my body and mind frozen. Billy grinned back at me for a few seconds, his eyes sparkling cheerfully in the sun.

"Weeeeeeeeell," said Billy, getting to his feet, breaking the eye contact and also the awkward silence. "Now I guess I've gots to go get me that toast….!"

He caught sight of the daisy again, which was still sitting on my bed, and let out a bloodcurdling shriek of terror. Before I could pull myself together from the first shock, an enormous growl rumbled through the room, setting our bones trembling and our hairs standing on end; still screeching like a girl, Billy stumbled away from the flower in horror. But he wasn't fast enough. There was a great whipping sound and a few long green tendrils sprouted from the daisy's stem and snaked through the room, stretching towards Billy like desperate, grasping fingers, coiling themselves around him like anacondas, locking his squirming body in an unbreakable viselike grip. The flower itself, which had swelled to nearly ten times its normal size, sat on my bed growling like a tiger, swaying its gigantic petals back and forth. The thick tendrils squeezed Billy mercilessly, and he shrieked in such an earsplitting high pitched tone that I was surprised that the windows had not yet shattered from the sound of it. The monstrous daisy turned menacingly towards me with a sound like the rumbling of an avalanche, several new tendrils shooting out of its thick stem and winding at me; I remained kneeling there on the floor for a second, wide eyed and stunned.

My brain snapped back into gear just as the tendrils reached me and I desperately threw myself out of their grasp, my teeth gritted tightly, my blonde hair flying, and my cold eyes narrowed. I landed heavily on my knees, and as soon as my body had slammed into the ground, the tendrils swooped through the air in another attempt to seize me. I snatched one of them in my fist and snapped it in my grip with a ferocious growl; another coiled itself around my thigh in the same moment. Slapping away another vine that had been curling towards my throat, I lashed out with my free leg and crushed the tendril with my bare foot; its grip on my thigh withered and I pulled myself free in a lightning fast movement, leaping over another tendril that had attempted to snag my waist. Seizing and crushing a few more twisting tendrils in my iron fists, my gaze spun desperately towards Billy, who was still struggling helplessly in the daisy's grasp, screaming for help like a distressed banshee. I couldn't explain what drove me to do it, but in a flash I had leapt to his side, growling as I tore at the thick, rough cords that coiled around him, ripping and smashing them with my bandaged fingers. Billy desperately stretched out one of his newly freed arms and I grasped it, groaning with effort as I attempted to pull him free of the daisy's clutches. He suddenly screamed and pointed behind me in terror, but by the time I had registered his warning, it was too late. A tendril swooped out of nowhere and curled itself around my waist, binding my arms to my sides and squeezing the breath out of me with a grip as strong as iron. Thrashing my body wildly, I frantically kicked at the air, trying to hit something at least, but to no avail. The daisy lifted me up close to its yawning head as I continued to wriggle helplessly, the waving petals brushing my forehead, almost triumphantly. Sickened, I drew away from it; it rumbled like a crumbling mountain, snaking another snakelike tendril around my throat.

But before I even felt the compression on my windpipe, the grip had vanished, the sliced tendril falling limply to the floor. Dumbstruck, I stared down at my savior; Billy had wriggled free of the daisy and was perched in a battle stance on the carpet, pounding his chest and howling like a mad gorilla, a bit of smashed vine crushed in his tight, grubby fist. His face red with rage, he jumped up and ripped at the vines holding me, tearing them like a starving animal until their grip weakened. Before I could protest, he wrapped his arms tightly around my waist and pulled me free, throwing me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes while shrieking in triumph. However, being the pathetic, out of shape loser he was, he was unable to support my weight; we both tumbled to the ground, sprawling bodily on the floor in a tangled heap. I snapped out of my daze, baring my teeth and shoving Billy off of me, lashing a fatal kick at another swiping daisy tendril as Billy tumbled back onto the carpet, giggling. Roaring with rage, the daisy turned back towards us, seething with deadly energy; it was then that I made my move.

I sprang powerfully into the air, dodging a few twisting tendrils, my face grim and my white blonde hair rippling in the air. I landed with a grunt on the daisy's main stem, latching on with my bare feet and legs, digging my nails into the green plant flesh. The daisy shrieked and attempted to knock me off with a violent thrash, but I growled and clung on tighter, wrapping my hands around the thick stem and narrowing my eyes, concentrating. And then, with my hands curled around the entire circumference of the stem, I gave a mighty yank, my face contorted with rage. The stem snapped clean in half with the sound of the crackling trunk of a falling redwood, the daisy's disembodied head crashing lifelessly to the ground; the floor shook with its weight, loose petals floating through the air and all of the tendrils falling limp and dead. I leapt down to the ground in a blur of flying blonde hair as a blinding flash of white light burst through the room; I landed heavily next to Billy on the carpet, pain shooting through my bare feet as my weight slammed into the floor. The bright light faded and died; all that was left of the monstrous daisy was the tattered remains of a normal sized flower, vines and leaves and yellow petals all strewn lifelessly across the carpet.

Billy and I stared blankly down at the scattered petals, Billy lying sprawled on the floor and me standing rigidly beside him, bandaged fists clenched. Our clothes were torn and ragged, our hair was disheveled, and our bodies were covered with bruises and scrapes, scarred from our recent battle. We sat silently there for what seemed like a day; I finally tore my gaze away from the dead flower and glanced at Billy. To my surprise, he was smiling again, as if nothing had happened. His eyes swiveled up to me and he caught my gaze, giggling girlishly.

"Oh geez; Grim's gonna be soooo mad when he finds out that he failed….**again**!"

I couldn't work up an appropriate response, so I scowled grimly at him as he laughed crazily, doubling over with his own mirth.

"Stupid flower!" he howled, pointing accusingly at the remains on the carpet. "We beat your stupid butt, sucka!" He burst back into a frenzy of giggling.

"What a brilliant observation." I muttered flatly and sarcastically. Billy paused his stupid victory dance (which included heavy hip twirling and fist pounding) and turned to look at me, quizzically.

"What are you looking at, wimp?"

"Mandy, why didn't you just kill the flower when you saw it on your doorstep in the first place? That's why I gave to ya; duuuuuh. 'Cause I know you hate flowers."

My mouth opened wordlessly, my face paling. I couldn't say, I wouldn't say. I didn't even know the answer myself. If Billy had a speck of a brain in that empty skull of his, he probably would've actually reacted to the fact that I couldn't reply. But, as the whole world knows, he didn't. Instead he jumped to his feet and threw his arms around me, pulling my body tightly against his in a crushing hug.

"You're my beeeest friend, Mandy." He said quietly, closing his eyes and smiling, nuzzling his face in my hair. Every particle of my being urged to punch him right in his stupidly content face, yet I could not do it. I was frozen, both body and mind. I could only stand there like a moron, gaping, my eyes bulging in disbelief. And just when I thought things were truly as horrible as they could get, a bout of familiar, echoing evil laughter burst through the air. Grim. He was standing in the doorway to my bedroom, laughing his brains out, pointing at me and Billy accusingly. My eyes widened even further, heat and color rushing into my cheeks; Billy didn't even react. He tightened his grip on me, his smile widening and his eyes opening.

"Hi, Grim!" he called happily. "We killed your stupid flower!"

"Who cares?" Grim exclaimed in between laughs. "Dis is much more satisfying! Now where's dat camera…."

A blinding white flash temporarily washed out my vision; when it returned, I saw Grim, holding his camera clutched in his bony fingers, still shaking with laughter.

"Dis is going on the Internet! I can't believe it, Mandy; I always knew you and Billy were sweethearts!"

He mimed kissing the back of his hand, making sloppy smacking sounds and batting his eyelids. Billy finally released me and began running in circles around the room, giggling madly, obviously not at all understanding what was going on. I, on the other hand, had seen enough.

The burning rage ignited in my chest and spread outward; my eyes lit up with the fire of wrath, the heat tingled and coursed through my veins from head to toe, and waves of hot white energy radiated from my body and rippled through the air, warping it. My bandaged hands clenched into rock hard fists, trembling with uncontrollable fury, my face flushed and my mouth twisted into a foul grimace, my teeth gritted so tightly that they ached. I could barely see though the white cloud of my rage, but I was faintly aware of my body flying at Grim's, my flying fists pummeling every inch of him that I could reach. He didn't even have time to scream; in a split second, he was reduced to a mere pile of shattered bones, lying strewn over the carpet with the remains of the homicidal daisy. Billy peered at the mess, mildly interested. I crushed Grim's camera mercilessly under my bare foot, and then, seething with fury, I soared out the bedroom window in a flying blur of tangled blonde hair, ripping up and shredding every single flower I could get my hands on, the petals scattering through the hot, heavy summer air as Billy watched from the bedroom window, his face shining with yet another smile.

-END-


End file.
